Open Research in the Classroom

Open research practices can benefit students, researchers, and the research community by improving the quality, transparency, and accessibility of research findings. Many groups such as the Edinburgh Open Research Initiative (EORI) and the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT) aim to promote the integration of open research practices into university curriculums. Senior year high school pupils preparing to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) of Social Sciences subjects at university will often conduct their first research project as part of an Advanced Higher course, Nuffield Research Placement, or CREST Award. We have recently received funding to develop resources aimed at introducing S4-S6 Scottish High School pupils to open research practices. Already there is keen interest from Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC), who run Nuffield Research Placements in Scotland, to make these resources available to all pupils completing placements. We are currently looking for a small group of UoE students (undergraduate or postgraduate) to assist in developing two short animation scripts on open research topics and an interactive activity. Students will be reimbursed for contributing to the project. Students should be knowledgeable on open research topics (although you don’t have to be an expert!). Science communication experience is not required, although we will encourage all student volunteers to sign up to the STEM Ambassadors programme. We are not able to use our funding to reimburse staff members, but UoE staff are more than welcome to register their interest in our project and help out with developing or assuring the quality of our resources. This project is funded by alumni and friends of the University of Edinburgh through the Student Experience Grant scheme

Tapping into the Potential of Peer Tutors

13-16 July 2002 A challenge facing all medical schools is how to ensure that all students have the skills they need to cope with the demands of their curriculum. Computer literacy is no longer optional - all students from day one need to be able to communicate by email, look up information about the timetable on the intranet, and use an elibrary. As well as they are expected to use standard software to prepare assignments, projects, and group presentation. For the past four years we have run a highly successful peer tutoring project to ensure that those who arrive without the necessary skills have the support they require. This paper will report on the methods (how we recruit and train the peer tutors and how we identify those who need help, how we deliver the training), the costs and the outcomes. We now have data on the IT skills of 1,5000 students

Vocational ladders or crazy paving? Making your way to higher levels

The report is part of a suite of research projects on apprenticeships under the overall theme of 'making work-based learning work'. The aim of this particular study was to explore the role of level 3 vocational qualifications and work-based learning, including Modern Apprenticeships, as progression routes to higher education and to higher-level knowledge and skills more generally. The study comprised secondary analysis of national datasets, and an exploration of supply, demand and progression patterns in four contrasting employment sectors, focusing on enablers and inhibitors of work-based education and training

Evolution of a cross-year mentoring scheme

In a university department where less than seven percent of the students and staff are women, a sense of isolation can have a detrimental effect on the progression and retention of those female students. To address issues of isolation, progression, and retention the University of Lincoln's Department of Computing and Informatics (DCI)1 began a cross-year mentoring scheme in 2005 and has tracked the progress and the changes that this scheme has brought about over the past two years. Key issues addressed include better support for women students to ensure they successfully omplete their studies and progress to successful careers in Computing; raising awareness of the predominantly male staff in the department regarding the impacts on female student retention; raising awareness university-wide about the support provided to female students and transferring the knowledge gained across the university to other departments. The cross-year mentoring scheme for DCI women students has resulted in a dramatic increase in female student retention. A 2004 census of students showed that only 25% of female students progressed into their 3rd academic year. However, in 2006 100% of female students advanced into their 3rd year class. The mentoring scheme initially focused on students from the year above mentoring students in the year below, and now continues by promoting postgraduate students as mentors

The impact on firms of ICT skill-supply strategies: an Anglo-German comparison

This paper compares the supply of specialist ICT skills in Britain and Germany from higher education and from apprenticeship and assesses the relative impact on companies in the two countries. In contrast to Britain, where numbers of ICT graduates have expanded rapidly, the supply of university graduates in Germany has not increased. Combined with the constraints of the German occupational model of work organization, it is concluded that this failure of supply may have contributed to slower growth of ICT employment in Germany. At the same time, German firms have turned to a newly developed model of apprenticeship to supply routine technical ICT skills. This strategy contrasts with British firms which recruit from a wide range of graduate specialisms and invest more heavily in graduate training. Probably in part as a consequence, apprenticeship in ICT occupations in Britain has failed to develop